Ace Your College Classes - Part 1

Do well in school

This is part 1/2 of how to ace your college classes.

When I was a college student, I wondered how I could ace my college classes. In the first semester of my freshmen year, my GPA literally dropped 1 point below my average GPA in high school. In my second semester of my freshmen year, I was able to raise my GPA by half a point, but only with a lot of backbreaking hard work. After four years of college, I realized how to be more judicious with my studying, time, as well as how to get good grades in class. If you love your classes but just want an extra edge, then this is the place. If you don't care about your classes but still want good grades, this article is for you as well.

Here are some tips to ace your college classes

1. Get to know the professors

People view studying and grades as very technical and limited - something you do when you have the time outside of the classroom. However, "smart" students know how to exploit and leverage every opportunity they have to do well in school. I encourage you to get to know your professors, because it's good to have genuine relationships as well as good connections in the future. Thus, go up to professors during office hours as well as after class to talk to them. Talk to them about the course, what questions you have, and find ways to connect with them. Trust me, most professors and TAs sit in office hours bored out of their minds. If you can alleviate their boredom and be likeable, they'll have a favorable impression of you and it'll be that much harder for them to give you a bad grade. Also, when possible, discuss the assignments coming up and probe what they're looking for in the assignments. If they're willing to give suggestions, you can find out what they're looking for. For example, I would always run the rough draft of an essay through my freshmen writing teacher to see what he thought about it. He would go through it and pinpoint what he wanted to see, as well as what could be improved. Needless to say, I got a good grade in that class.

2. Do what Tim Ferriss did

Tim Ferriss is the author of the "4-hour Work Week" - a book I'd highly recommend for those who want to escape 9 to 5. If he got anything below an A on an essay or project, he would go in and talk to the teacher. When he talked to the teacher, he would go through every single "problem" on the assignment and ask how to correct it. After maybe one to two hours of spending time with the professor, he would achieve two things: (1) The professor knew better than to give him a bad grade, since that would mean him coming in again to monopolize a few hours of the professor's time, and (2) he would find out exactly what he had to do to get a good grade. If anything, this is a reminder to work smart.